Monday, January 14, 2019
I worked with Gary for many years at Chrysler''s, on many jobs on the floor, as well as on the breakdown trucks at WAP. I was a welder on many jobs that Gary was the team leader on it was always a pleasure to work for him. Gary was an excellent skilled tradesman and was very conscientious in performing his assigned tasks. Gary was also quite the practical joker too and you never knew what was his next gag. One time when we had several new people come into our department, Gary went to them and told them that he was in charge of locker allocation and that there was a set fee for locker rental which had to be paid in advance if anyone wanted a locker. Some of the people actually believed him and paid the $5.00 weekly fee upfront, everyone in the department were in disbelief that these new people fell for his story and many of us just marked it up to Gary pulling another prank, but the union got wind of it and went after Gary not realizing that it was just one of his notorious gags. The union threatened to go to management not knowing that Gary had already returned the supposed locker fees. This was just one of the gags that Gary was famous for. Gary was a real caring individual and was the first to help out anyone who was in dire straits. Gary ran the department coffee pot for years and donated money from the pot to many charities and people in need, at work and outside of work. To close Gary was quite a good friend during the time that I had the opportunity to work with him, it was quite a show sometimes, watching him pulling his gags and no one was safe not even management, some of the things he came up with were at times mind boggling. I imagine that Gary was quite loved by his family and will be really missed, my deepest condolences to all of you Chris Drew a retired Welder from Dept 9075 Windsor Assembly
